Many articles about diabetes appear daily, many of them very interesting. The intent here is to make some of these available for others who may not see them or have bypassed them. I will try to comment briefly on those I have grouped or on an individual article. This is not guaranteed to be a daily post, but I hope that this will give you ideas for your own research or blog posts. Please talk to your doctor about medical problems.

25 September 2013

Home Care Coming Under Scrutiny

Who is checking on the people who are minding our elders? While
this is taken from information gathered in California, I know that it
applies to many other states. if not all states. According to a new
policy brief and related report by the UCLA Center for Health PolicyResearch, very little data exists to measure the care or quality of
care provided by private home care providers.

Two of the provider organizations in California, In-Home
Supportive Services (IHSS) and Home Health Agencies are subject to
licensing, certification, and background checks. The other two offer
none of these protections and are Home Care Agencies and individual
caregivers, whether they provide services of housekeeping or other
non-medical support.

Nadereh Pourat, the UCLA center’s director of research and
author of the study stated, “Regulations within the private home
care industry might help establish standards for caregiving that can
ensure patient safety and quality of care.” This combined with
a mandatory background check should be a minimum. I don't think
licensing should be required, but a form should be filed with the
local law enforcement agency so that in case of a robbery, death,
fire, or other accident, they could know who might have been in the
residence.

Of course, the policy brief was funded by the Service Employee
International Union, and the Union of Long Term Care Workers. They
desire the licensing and union membership to put in their coffers.

Then those wanting regulation want them also for this reason.
Regulation could result in another important benefit, creating public
data that could be studied to better understand the quality of care
provided by home care agencies. Regulations by the state to create
standards of care and provide for background checks is
understandable, but for other purposes such as providing curiosity
data should not be the goal of regulations.

Other states would be wise to consider similar actions to create
standards.

About Me

I am enjoying life, despite diabetes type 2. I am retired and enjoying the time I have for writing and photography. I was diagnosed with type 2 on Oct 2003, on oral meds for 4 months and they were doing nothing to really improve my daily readings. By cutting my carbohydrates I received the most improvement, but still not enough. Then I requested insulin, even though I did not like the thought of needles. That brought about the biggest change and A1c's in the lower 6's and upper 5's. Now I am working at maintaining them under 6.0 and hopefully nearer 5.5.